more lelenga

Thursday, June 11 � Lelenga Day
We're moving up the learning curve! Last time Sarah and I only watched as Skita finished preparing lelenga. Today, Sarah and I took ingredients and our own cassava (obikola) scraper over to Auntie Sarah and we all worked together from beginning to end. We went around 2 o'clock, and Auntie began by showing us how to peel cassava. It was easier than I thought. You take your bush knife (I now have my very own small one � it's about a "cubit" in length), and cut off the ends of the cassava. Then, you cut a slit from top to bottom. Next, you work the tip of the knife in under the thick skin to pry it off, and the whole thing peels beautifully! After we had peeled the cassava we had bought at yesterday's market, we washed it and scraped it. Aaron helped us out by scraping nine coconuts at home, and he brought the coconut over as we were finishing up the cassava peeling. We put a tiny bit of water in the coconut. Then, we took a piece of finely pounded bark, placed some of the grat!
ed coconut inside, and SQUEEZED. Once all of the coconut milk was out, we boiled the liquid. Then Auntie brought out a big pan and apologized for not using only leaves! This pan is from WWII and it was made in the USA, so they call it the "USA pan". Auntie Sarah showed me how to heat the leaves by drawing them slowly over the fire so they wouldn't crack when we folded them into the "USA pan". We layered the cassava and coconut milk, and Auntie built a big fire using coconut husks. She put many large stones on top, then we all went outside to visit and slice bananas for the lelenga. After a while, she went in to check the stones, and we all joined her and finished making the pudding by adding the bananas. We placed the pudding on top of the hot stones, then placed more stones on top of the pudding and covered the whole thing with leaves like we did with Skita. Then, we each went back to our own houses to cook supper and get ready for Evening Prayer. After Evening Prayer, we !
went home, but it didn't take long for Auntie Sarah to come and get us
for the unveiling of the pudding. We all watched as she pulled the heavy pan off the fire and took off the stones. When the banana cooks, it turns red, so the pudding had a reddish tinge this time. Auntie cut it into pieces, and we took some home with us to enjoy.