Graduation party

Graduating from school and receiving a certificate is always an occasion to celebrate. When the graduation marks the first-ever class who have learned to read and write in a language that previously had no written material, it’s an especially big occasion.

With our first class graduating from our literacy program, a cultural “one stomach” celebration was held in the literacy building. Invitations to all 7 Kovol villages went out, with invitations also going out to a pair of neighbouring language groups. With the invitations sent by word of mouth it was now time to get ready for the party. The to-do list for the community looked like this:

• Haul water up from the stream 10 minutes downhill to fill the 500L community tank. Guests need something to drink. Also haul water for cooking.
• Set string traps in the jungle to catch rodents as the centre piece of the meal.
• Clear the area around the literacy building of weeds and clear new areas of jungle for seating.
• Build temporary chairs and benches.
• Set up lean-to shelters to protect against rain and sun on the day.
• Write people’s names on their cooking pots so they don’t get mixed up.
• Gather root vegetables and greens.
• Stay up all night long cooking.

Eating meat is culturally very important in Kovol. Meat consumption is a special treat. My guess from observation is that eating meat is on average a monthly occurrence. Providing enough meat so that everyone can have a good chunk guarantees people have a good meal. The thinking behind this is also that if we eat meat together we are showing that there is no friction between us. We are one stomach, one thinking and so we won’t see any sickness, accidents or misfortune. Pigs are kept as a meat source, but there weren’t enough pigs to go around for this meal and so rodents was the meat of choice.

String traps were laid in the jungle to lasso rat-sized rodents moving around the jungle. Once caught, the animal is gutted, charred over the fire to remove the hair and can be smoked if it will be a few days before the meal.

With all the preparations in place, people arrived on Thursday afternoon. Food preparation started at 3pm and went all through the night. Unseasoned root vegetable soup with rat meat is the meal of choice. Initially lots  and lots of root vegetables are peeled. Everything is boiled in a pot, and the pots went on the fire at 1 or 2am. The fire is kept going all night and the pots are topped up with new water as the liquid boils off. Our friend counted 103 pots over the fire. It was a tremendous catering challenge for the community!

Our program started in the morning. We missionaries stood up to give speeches reminding people of the importance of literacy. Literacy teachers from the neighbouring people group joined us and they also spoke up saying “A little while ago we were the same. The missionaries taught us to read to start with, but now all the work is in our hands and we are doing it. You will be the same!” We invited some of our students to read out loud and then we presented the certificates.

Following this “official” part of the day some of our students gave us a thank you gift consisting of foraged eggs, cucumbers and a charred and smoked rat. We appreciate the gesture, even if the meat is a little well done for our tastes! We don’t dare to eat too much of it in case our stomachs complain afterwards!

The meal that followed, was, for me,  also very much all about the gesture rather than the culinary experience. A little salt would probably improved it a lot. I’m quite spoiled being used to salt with all my meals. As an honoured guest at the meal my bowl had a big chunk of meat in it. Unfortunately, the claw poking its way out of the soup didn’t have the desired effect on me of making my mouth water. I tentatively started with the root vegetables and eventually tried the rat. It wasn’t too bad actually! Is it a cliché to say it tasted like chicken? I wasn’t able to finish the bowl, but that’s OK. We’re allowed to pass our bowl on to someone else who will appreciate it.

The important part of the feast is that everyone gets to eat, and that every guest gets to eat until they are full. 40 minutes after finishing my own bowl I saw new pots coming off the fire and being dished out. I asked if some people had not eaten yet, but no, everyone had. It was now time for thirds and fourths!

       Kovol cooking.

Around midday everyone finished eating their fill and started to disperse. After staying up all night cooking, people are understandably quite tired. One final event was the presentation of a pig to the Pal people group. The Pal people received missionaries before Kovol did. They are seen as the source of the missionaries coming and so they were presented with a gift to celebrate that and ensure there was one stomach. The pig was passed on with speeches where they said, “You must look after your missionaries well, do everything they tell you and it’ll be good.”
It’s not quite what I would have said, but then again I’m not really understanding exactly what is going on. The giving of the pig was something that I didn’t know was coming, but everyone else did. To me it’s one of those shrug the shoulders and carry on things. It makes perfect sense to them, but even after living here for years I’m still an outsider confused by underlying logic.

With a successful graduation party complete, everyone dispersed. Our students have now gone into the 9-hole practice program and I’ll be writing about their progress soon.