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Sapate Ako - Fakaafe
The Uike Lotu is over, but now we're into the cycle in the Free Wesleyan Calendar called the "Pole" talitali malanga. In the "Pole" system, a family would ballot for opportunities (sic) to host the preacher (with or without) the church for a meal and discussions.
In the evolution of the Tongan Culture, the talitali malanga has become a serious affair. At our house, Mama Bear and Papa Bear host the Sapate Ako afternoon service. This Sunday, in the Free Wesleyan Calendar, is dedicated to promotion of education and the Free Wesleyan School System. Part of the day's program is for speakers to be allocated from the School System office to present speeches on various topics relating to education.
For the Ma'ufanga, kai fa'o, congregation this usually means a packed house on Sunday afternoon where children are dressed in their school uniforms and attend to listen to all these inspiring speeches (not.) After which, they can come on over to 'Umusii to Ma'ake lahi and Sesi lahi's residence for a huge feast.
Of course preparations begin well in advance, and fortunately for Ma'ake he's tended his fields and animals throughout the year so much of the expense such as the cow for the meat and food on the table comes from the fruit's of his own hands.
But food preparations aren't things that you can keep stored in the fridge for ever, so a lot of work has to be completed in a very short amount of time. This leads to strange things like boys camped around the front of a truck light digging up a huge grave hole for the ngoto 'umu.
Push turns to shove early in the morning as pigs are pre-roasted over the 'umu as the stones for the 'umu are being fired. Attention is quickly given to filling the new Kato 'Umu which holds the food giving easier access to the food.
Unfortunately, all this adds up to needing some serious muscle work to put the Kato 'Umu into the ngoto 'umu for the oven work.
I didn't get much time to look in on the women-folk, but they weren't too happy with us thinking that we were slow in delivering some coconut oil to them delaying their work. But you can't ever win with women anyway ?
This year we made a number of changes to the process, which hopefully meant we delivered better cooked delicious food.
Next your, we're hopefully dining on some bad take-away food. Or, we might just Christmas here to help out. How about introducing some Project Management to this hugely complex process ? Are you kidding ?
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