17/06/2016
Excerpt from Storm in a Teacup:
We were departing Swains Island that evening so our new island friends put on a great feast for us. The night before we saw lights out on the reef. The people were out collecting crabs, crayfish and fish all night. The day of the feast we all gathered in the guest hall where the feast was laid out before us. There were prayers, there were speeches and there were more speeches and we were invited to eat. I was very surprised that the locals didn’t join in with us, they insisted that we eat first. For us Europeans this is very un-usual and I felt a little uncomfortable eating first before the woman and children. The food itself was very good, there were pork dishes with a variety of seasoning, fish dishes prepared in many different ways, whole coconut crabs just boiled, another variety of crab as well, roasted chicken, ta-ro, rice and local fruit.
