Foraging

Yesterday we had quite the feast thanks to both Semoko and Deborah. Semoko provided some incredibly fresh and delicious fish he caught from his uncle’s boat the previous evening, plus greens he had plucked from the surrounding bush, plus cassava and plantains growing on his property. Deborah whipped the latter two items into a mashed-potato-type concoction that was quite tasty. She also cooked two types of pasta and a vegetable tomato sauce. Deelish.

Virtually all Fijians outside the cities seem to have some sort of garden, and many have domestic food animals also – particularly chickens and goats – but also ducks (as Deborah well knows), pigs and cattle (Semoko has five). But the Fijians are certainly great foragers as well. You often see them walking along the road with bags or bundles of bananas, papayas, pineapples, coconuts, various greens, cassava, dahlo (taro), plantains, or whatever else they’ve managed to harvest from the surrounding land. They also fish, of course, – sometimes with a spear gun – and some hunt wild boar, wild chickens, or even mongoose. (Semoko says mongoose tastes like chicken (naturally) but must be eaten hot or it smells funny). No, people don’t starve here. The abundance of foodstuffs growing all around plus the strong village culture are probably the reasons you don’t see any vagrants here on the island.

Of course, as I’ve mentioned previously, Semoko forages for his medicinal leaves as well, which Deborah has been diligently applying to that nasty boil on his back. She found a new use for feminine napkins also as they make terrific bandages for soaking up the puss from the wound. Semoko did take our advice and saw a doctor about his boil, and received some penicillin injections and antibiotic pills. I’m happy to report that his back is much improved.

Tomorrow we’re getting up before the crack of dawn to catch a ferry to the neighboring island of Taveuni, where we will stay two nights. Since we won’t be back until Thursday night, I probably won’t blog again until Friday.