WITHOUT AN OVEN

It is now a clear fact that Ruve St rocks without an oven. Bamboo steamers are the bomb, unless they become a bomb if you let your wok burn dry and the steamer happens to catch fire. That hasn't happened, but we smelt something burning this evening.

Anyway, I told you about the banana leaves I carried around town in a previous post. I have done some amazing things with my banana leaf. I haven't made a raft or turned it into a knittable banana leaf yarn, but it has flavoured the nourishment for the energy I need to carry other random objects around Suva.

Last night, I made Kuih Koci! The recipe was from Poh's Kitchen (bless her socks) and it tasted like a pyramid of Fiji-made-Malaysian heaven. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any fresh pandan leaves to add to the flavour. I received weird looks at school when I asked where I could buy fresh ones for cooking. In Fiji, they only use dried pandan leaves for mat weaving here.



The great thing about them is that they looked pretty ugly and untidy when I wrapped them up. However, once steamed, they had expanded into their banana leaf parcels and this was the result:



Tonight's dinner was also a piece of awesome. I had chicken marinated in coconut milk with fresh pineapple, dried basil wrapped in a Banana leaf:



Now, it also had this smokey flavour to it which might explain the burn marks around the base of our bamboo steamer. I think something must have caught fire at some stage, but the flavour it produced was AMAZING!

Recent Events

Apologies for the week-long neglected blog. Mum, you must be getting edgy that I have not posted for a whole week! Suva has been rainy, windy and sporadically sunny.

School holidays have been and gone. Not much has happened. I got completely and utterly bored towards the end of the holidays and resorted to knitting a bra. Yes, I am knitting a bra. More to come about the bra in a later blog post.

Sunday, which was Father's day (which is observed in Fiji), was rather eventful. It panned out like this:

Woke up early as I normally do to walk 40 minutes to the pool, with the arrival time of 8:30. I swam somewhere between 500 and 600 meters and it started raining on me while I was in the pool. The feeling of cool droplets on your face as you're doing backstroke down the pool makes you feel like you've got pins and needles on your face.

I finished at the pool and walked to the bus stop. On the way, there were Indo-Fijian boys selling Mangoes:

"You buy mangoes? Sweet mangoes! Sweet like you madam..." was yelled at me from across the street. I responded by rolling my eyes so far into the back of my head that I wasn't sure if they'd come back again. I proceeded to buy tomatoes from another street seller who tried to convince me that I should pay more because it was Father's day.

I waited at the bus stop madly trying to repair the broken zip on my bag, and then gave up when the bus arrived. As soon as I sat down, another man came from behind me, sat himself beside me and draped his arm over the back of my seat. He was sitting a bit too close. He edged towards me and I froze. I had no idea what to do. I saw that he had a razor in his hand, and he was also talking to himself. I didn't quite catch what he was saying, partly because my anxiety levels were rising and partly because he was speaking nonsense to no one in particular. At this stage, my heart was beating faster than it had been while I was swimming laps in the pool.

I looked around desperately for support. Everyone was looking away and this guy noticed that I was giving imploring looks to the people around me. He edged closer. I squashed myself up against the window as close as I could to get away from him.

Thankfully, we passed a police station. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I raised my eyebrows at the policeman standing at the front of the station.

Raising your eyebrows at someone in Fiji has a multitude of meanings:
"Yes",
"What do you want?",
"Can I speak to you?",
"I've acknowledged that you've said something but I don't know how to respond to your question",
"Maybe",
"I want your attention!!!"

Or in my case, raising my eyebrows meant:

"Please policeman, can you get this man next to me off the bus because he is really scaring me!!!!"

Apparently it worked, because the bus stopped, the policeman came up to the bus and yelled at the man sitting next to me. When the man did not move, the policeman boarded the bus and escorted him off.

Phew. Amanda is saved again for another day.

Other than that, the rest of the day turned out beautifully. I went to Yum Cha at Restaurant 88 at the back of the main foodcourt in the central shopping complex. I met the Rucksack club which is a club that organises cultural and outdoor activities for anyone living in Fiji. Yum Cha was fantastic and genuine, as opposed to the normal "Chinese" food you find in Suva: chopped bok choi and carrot drowning in soy sauce and MSG.

I've also managed to rope myself into organising the Cross Island Walk. This is a walk that starts from the North of the Viti Levu island through the centre of Viti Levu and back to Suva in the south.

But anyway, that is enough from me for now. More to come on knitted bras, kuih, school and planning the cross island walk...

P.S. Happy Birthday, Ben!

HIBISCUS FESTIVAL

Fijians LOVE a good festival. Festivals mean FOOD. FOOD means a sausage, pork chop, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of cassava and salad, all for $5. A heap of oil is also thrown in for free. Festivals also mean rides, amusements, popcorn and "candy floss". It also serves as a great advertising opportunity for local companies by sponsoring festival "Queens" and "Kings". Contestants include: Kings (guys in their 20s or so), Queens (ladies in their 20s or so), Princesses and Princes (teenage contestants) and of course, "Ladys" (who are the more...mature division).

So last week was the Hibiscus Festival. When we first arrived in Fiji in Nadi, we visited Lautoka for the "Sugar" festival. This is it:




The Hibiscus is famous for being the "Mother of all festivals". Or, as my housemate put it: "The sugar festival on steroids":




Pre-requisites for festivals include:
- A line of foodstalls at least 100m long



- Ferris wheels that would probably send you flying to the Suva mud flats if they were to break



- Flying aeroplane rides with "Osama bin BOOM" scrawled across the side



- A float parade:



- A talent contest (one of the kings stated that his talent would be "to play the drums, and then read a poem")



- Rubbish weather (apparently it always rains in the week of Hibiscus)

But most importantly: A CROWNING CEREMONY of the Hibiscus Kings and Queens.



So despite us being a lot poorer, suffering from tooth decay and heart disease, I'd highly recommend the Hibiscus Festival for a lot of fun in the sun, just like this adoring crowd:

THE OBJECTS I HAVE CARRIED AROUND SUVA THIS WEEK

People may start to recognise me as that Asian girl who carries around random things.

There are certain places which you buy or obtain certain things. For example, you find the best meat in Flagstaff which is 20 minutes walk down the road, the better pool to swim in is a further 20 minutes, the place where you find the best curry is about 30 minutes in the other direction and the cheapest toilet paper is somewhere in between. We do not own a car and catching taxis ALL the time tends to rack up a bit of a bill, despite the fact that they are cheap to begin with. So the only option is to either catch a bus or walk in a massive circular route to get all the necessary shopping items. This may result in carrying a huge stash of toilet paper on the way to the curry restaurant or carrying all of your veggies from the market across town to the butcher.

On Monday, I walked 40 minutes and bought a guitar:



Which I then carried on a 30 minute walk to the bus station to take it home. I was aware that the guitar, in comparison to my own small stature, made me look like a suspended guitar with a pair of legs walking down the street. Hence, I received some stares from passing people.

On Wednesday, I walked 20 minutes to school, collected a banana leaf:



And then walked 15 minutes with Emily into the city to the market with my massive banana leaf because it was on the way home. People yelled out at me: "hey! Banana leaf, eh?!". Thankyou. I am quite aware that I have a banana leaf.

On Sunday, I walked 20 minutes to the only place I had seen coconut brooms for sale:



I bought my broom and carried it through Suva a further 25 minutes to the pool where we then went for a swim. Yes Mum, I wore suncscreen. I am well aware that it looks like I have no pants on in my picture, but I have shorts on underneath.

Today, who knows what I'll be carrying across town?

PACIFIC TIME - THE REAL DEAL

About a month ago I told you about our in-country manager "testing" us with his intentional lateness. Well, I experienced the full brunt of it this week.

It's now school holidays. Apart from the mountain of reports that I have to complete, I was also asked by one of the student's carers to see their child EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. OF. THE. SCHOOL. HOLIDAYS...at their house. As this student did not require daily treatment and had a past history of being non-compliant with exercises anyway, I gave them a compremise by making myself available at school for two days of the week.

Monday was the first day for therapy at 11:00. I arrived right on 11:00 with the expectation that they'd probably be late. They certainly didn't let me down when they arrived at 11:30 without any notice, apology or explanation. So away I went, working away and running through this kid's exercises. His exercises consisted of passive stretches for his hips flexors, adductors and knee range. Nothing had ever been given to him for leg strengthening or balance. And as for functional, playful exercise...not sure if he was involved with any of that. The session wrapped up and so I arranged to meet them again on Wednesday at the same time.

Wednesday came. Again, I arrived at 10:55 ready for my appointment at 11:00...or 11:30 or thereabouts. As I was waiting, I busied myself with cutting a gigantic banana leaf off the tree in the school yard. I then arranged the therapy furniture. Then I arranged it again. I sat and chatted with the teachers that were doing holiday filing, followed by more waiting and twiddling of thumbs. I was facinated by the banana leaf and was looking for something to do, I took heaps of pictures of the banana leaf. 11:30 came, but no student arrived. I slowly munched away at my lunch, not because I was hungry, but becuase I wanted to pass time.

11:50 came and I sent a text to the student's carer:

"Just letting you know, I've left the school for the day. Please let me know if you want to see me again and I can make myself available"

The student never turned up, but on the flip side, I was in possession of a giant banana leaf that followed me home.

P.S. Things I have also achieved these holidays so far:

- written 5 half-reports
- bought a guitar
- went to hibiscus festival
- met with a diving instructor
- went for a swim at the 50m pool
- increased the demarcation of my flip-flop tan line

SWEET TREATS

When we first arrived in Ruve St, Samabula, we agreed to rent out our spacious 4 bedroom unit as it was - unfurnished. We have since bought a fridge, a washing machine, beds, furniture, cupboards and one disgustingly ugly dining table. Our house is now complete, however, we still have one missing household item: an oven.

We lack an oven on Ruve St, Samabula. In addition to this, one of my housemates is gluten intolerant and in a country where food allergies are far and few between, there are limited gluten-free options. Lauren (the "intolerant") usually gets by in Australia by baking her own food with gluten-free modifications. So naturally, she was desperate to purchase an oven asap.

And then I remembered the myriad of Malaysian recipes that mum and popo used to use in Malaysia when ovens were expensive. Most of these cakes and sweets were steamed rather than baked. So I proceeded to ask mum to email me recipes that she had in her cookbook.

Lauren bought a large bamboo steamer from an asian grocer just over a week ago. She has since made chocolate and sweet potato brownies and one awesome batch of savoury muffin/was-meant-to-be-a-quiche.

Today, we got busy in the kitchen and this was the result:

POPO's STEAMED CAKE

- 3/4 cup of white sugar + 4 eggs, beaten like MAD until pale
- Dash of vanilla essence and 3 tablespoons of milk
- 1 cup of flour - sifted twice (if you're my mum, you "shift" them twice, and if you're Manda in Fiji, you whirl it round with a balloon whisk because you forgot to purchase a sieve).

Steamed for 20 minutes in teacups.





PEANUT AND BLACK SESAME ONDE ONDE from "Poh's Kitchen"
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s2895228.htm





STEAMED TAVIOCA CAKE
(Tapioca/Cassava/but "Tavioca" is the Fijian word)

1.5kg of grated Tavioca
600g grated coconut with 2 cups of coconut cream squeezed out from it
2 beaten eggs
a tsp of butter
2 tsp evaporated milk
Dash of vanilla essence (was meant to be Pandan but couldn't figure out the Fijian equivalent)
300g sugar
1/4 tsp salt

All mixed in a pot together and heated through until thick

Steamed for 40 minutes

This cake was cheap to make, given the availability and freshness of the ingredients. I also managed to crack open the coconuts all by myself!!! The flip side was that it took AGES to grate the coconut and tavioca. Lauren is currently napping after all of her hard effort!



It's completely strange but I feel more Malaysian than ever after today...but I'm in Fiji! Special thanks to Mum for the recipes. Suddenly I feel a sense of connection to Mum, Popo and their homeland just through cooking these sweets today. Whoever thought that I would need to be dumped in the middle of the Pacific to ever make this discovery?

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS

Buses in Suva are amazing. They have no windows, they run on noisy diesel engines and they blast out the latest popular tunes in Fiji. Unfortunately, there are only about five songs on continuous repeat: Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, Travis McCoy’s “Billionaire”, Iyaz’ “Solo”, Akon’s “Daydreaming” and this song that goes “One two, one two, one two, one two” and so forth... Bus routes are identified by the colour of the bus and different routes are owned by different companies. At 70 cents a trip, it’s the cheaper mode of transport so buses are crowded. This means that getting close and friendly to your bus neighbour is completely normal. The other alternative is that you sit on half of the seat to preserve respect for personal space. However, sitting on only half of the seat makes a good launching pad if the bus runs through a pot hole. I’d rather give up personal space.

Bus routes are not documented anywhere. However, everyone just “knows” where the buses go. Never ask a local if a bus goes down a particular road because locals don’t actually bother learning the names of roads. Places are referenced by landmarks, rather than street addresses. The routes are arterial-based and there are no round-circuit routes…either that or we are yet to discover them.

Today I found my favourite bus route: route 20 “Gaji Rd via Samabula”. It took about as long as it takes for a Fijian to saunter down the length of the 500m-long Ruve Street and was about as indirect and vague as the flow of a Fijian conversation. We chose this route because Gaji Road is a continuation of Ruve Street (the street that we live on). So naturally we were hoping that the bus would be able to drop us right outside our house.

The lesson we learnt today was that when the bus route says “Gaji Road”, it actually means: “we will be travelling the entire length of Gaji Road, do a U-turn, and then double back on the road we just went down and then travel somewhere else that doesn’t quite make sense”. See the diagram below for full details. In the end, we got off at the corner of Belo and Gaji Roads which was near enough to our house.




I’ll call it the scenic route home.