| Jerry took us on a tour of his village's communal gardens |
| A field of cherry tomatoes |
| Coconut-headed scarecrows deter the pesky birds from the garden |
| Planting seemed so haphazard, that we had to follow in Jerry's footsteps to avoid stomping on the veggies! |
| To carry the banana leaves easier, he rolled them into a tube.... |
| Savoring sun ripened tomatoes--finger-lickin' good! |
| ...and tied them with a length of banana leaf |
| While we were rumaging around field, farm and forest the tide came in, stranding our dinghy |
| The nexy day we were invited to Jerry's house for a feast of their national dish, called lap-lap. Bob, Nancy & Bill from Cabaret, and Jerry in his cooking/eating hut |
| His porters helped him bring out the leaves and bananas |
| Jerry's wife, Claudia (8 months and 29 days pregnant!), had been making lap-lap all morning |
| By the time we arrived at 10 am it had been cooking for an hour in an underground oven. Claudia first used a log to roll off the steaming top cover of burlap.... |
| Jery led up father into the surrounding jungle where he cut fresh banana leaves for tomorrow's feast |
| The mound of super heated hot lava rocks was dismantled with a forked tong of bamboo |
| At last the lap-lap is uncovered, still baking on a flat metal tray! |
| Claudia and her baby due any minute sat down to serve |
| The banana leaf-wrapped lap-lap is slid off the hot metal tray onto a clean feed sack on top of a woven palm serving mat |
| The banana leaves are peeled back to reveal a fragrant dish of cassava soaked in coconut milk, and steamed with banana, tomatoes and shredded chicken |
| They had gone all out, adding meat to the lap-lap and serving us generous slices |
| Daughter Penny loves it, and so did we! |
| Claudia did the honors of serving us each a plate |
| The hot lap-lap rests beside another of Claudia's gorgeous intricately woven pandanus mats |
| Then she removed the banana leaf cover... |