Another day we attended, with every other resident, "Food Day". You would think international foods right? Wrong, of course not on Rotuma. There is a landing strip but no planes land here. One supply boat a month stops here, sometimes. There are no tourists.....there is no international food. This was a day of encouragement for Rotumans to keep growing their own. Food is so abundant on the island that they uprooted entire papaya trees and stuck them in the ground for decoration. Fruits and vegetables hung in creative ways everywhere, and when you asked to buy some of it at the end of the day, they just said to take it. Boxes and boxes of tomatoes, and pumpkins were everywhere, probably to go to waste. This is the first island we have been to where goats are kept on a tether and raised rather than allowed to run wild in the mountains then hunted. Pigs are equally raised which makes them plentiful on Rotuma. At the festival, there were lots of children dancing in competition, with powder and perfume being put on them in appreciation for their hard work dancing in the sun (and rain). There were coconut husking contests, LoLo contests (wringing the cream from the white meat of the coconut), coconut bowling contests, and lots of singing and music all day. The two island school busses ran back and forth until everyone got there, and got home. They don't allow standing on the busses, so it was hours waiting for a ride. The center stage acknowledged us as "foreigners" and made us honored guests, invited us to lunch. As it was we already had 2 other invitations for lunch.

A lady on the bus ride home had seen me before so she wanted to give me something, so she handed me her pandanus woven fly fan before jumping off the bus. Another lady gave me a big husked drinking coconut. Everyone was very warm and helpful. The customs lady even let me come to her house to use her internet when the post office's computer was down.