As simple as toast

Sunday's are special here in Tonga, different. It is, truly, a government mandated sabbath.

Which means for me:
No bus or taxi service into town. I am not leaving Fatumu, come what may.
No laundry, better get that done on Saturday, or you are going nama peka.
No exercising, so, if you put on your running shoes, and try to convince others you are just Eva peing, they will follow you to ensure that you don't break the law. (as per yesterday).
No thing to do. People sleep all the livelong day.
Cold Lu.

On Sunday afternoons we always eat Lu for lunch. Someday soon we will post about it. It can be either incredibly delicious, or horrifically disgusting. It is a surprise basket and you never know. 75% of the time, I really enjoy it, but...the other 25%-watch out! However much I like warm, straight from the umu Lu, cold Lu is another story altogether. Go ahead and swap those percentages.

As you might have guessed, cold, leftover Lu ,is the go to Sunday night dinner.

Last night I was not feeling it, and as luck would have it, it seemed they had other dinner options in mind for us. As our host parents discussed dinner for mark and I in Tongan, mark was brave enough to suggest something small and simple. I couldn't believe my ears when our host mom suggested toast. Quickly I stated, " oku ou sai ia toast!" - I like toast! As I thought about crispy, buttered bread, my stomach rumbled joyfully. Oh, what a wonderful sabbath.

As Vaiola began to cut slices of bread and warm a packet of butter in a bowl of hot water, mark asked how they make toast here in Tonga. Silly mark, "with a toaster", Vaiola replied. We all laughed. Of course, we didn't know they had a toaster.

But then...out comes a snackster, and a can of spaghetti-os. And not only is the snackster covered in dried, hardened, old spaghetti, but a lizard crawls out. And then the making of "toast" begins. A scoop of spaghettios, the buttering of the INSIDE of the sandwich, and in the snackster it goes. The infamous spaghetti sandwich. (which I truly find delicious, please try it, the crispness is just wonderful). It's just...sometimes when you expect one thing, it's hard to adjust to another....

(nick is the only other person I've ever met that appreciates the snackster as much as I do. This post goes out to snackster lovers everywhere!).

Alissa