May 27

We had a lovely time tonight at our senior's monthly FHE.  It was our turn to host and I have been thinking about it for months.  I wanted to do a Fijian night with good Fijian food, and a speaker that would teach us the history of Fiji.

We had the food catered.  We used the caterer, Sister Sikivou, who caters for the Service Center.  She and I decided on ika vaka lolo (raw fish in coconut milk--delicious!), apricot chicken (not so Fijian as one can not get fresh apricots here--still delicious), cabbage salad, seafood salad, rourou balls (coconut, meat in cooked dalo leaves) in lolo, and lote with cream (pumpkin pudding--my favorite).

It took me about an hour and a half to get the tables and chairs in the cafeteria into a pleasing arrangement.  I used sulus for tablecloths, and had purchased small Fijian flags for the tables.

Sister Sikivou really went the extra mile as she brought a fruit punch which was so good, and a fresh fruit platter neither of which we had agreed that she would make and the price stayed the same. Amazing.   Everyone ate and ate.  Many commented that it was the first time they had eaten good Fijian food.  The pudding I had had made was just another choice for dessert. Seniors are crazy. Some of them were putting the lote over the puddings.  One senior put pudding in his bowl and then added lote, custard, and cream which made me cringe some.

After dinner which we held in the Service Center's cafeteria, we went into the conference room and Brother and Sister Lowery who are members of the church gave us a presentation on Fiji. Brother Lowery is a professor and used to teach at USU in Logan but now teaches at USP.  We had a great time.  Their presentation was direct, accurate, and interesting with lots of opportunities for questions and comments.  I really enjoyed it.

Clean up was easy as we ate on paper plates, and I had a lot of help.  Both Scott and I had a great time. We hope everyone else did also.