MAKING CAKES…THE HARD WAY
I never thought making cakes would take all day. I woke up this morning and did my usual coffee and working on essays for college apps. Then I headed out by bike to find some bananas to make banana bread for Sunday’s big meal at the pastor’s house. As I said earlier, Mothers Day is huge here and I was invited to the mothers meal at the EFKS church. Everyone loves my cakes and to do something special, I thought I would make two and bring them with. Also, I hoped to make one for the pastor’s wife of the Mormon church as a thank you for the Siva and Happy Mothers Day.
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At 8AM, I went out by bike to find bananas. I stopped at Koreti’s house. She was very sorry she didn’t have any, but insisted on picking a ripe pineapple that she had been wanting to give to me. I told her I would be back to pick it up so I didn’t parade it around town. Then I headed up towards Lauesi’s house, but on the way, Manu asked me where I was going and when I said I was looking for fa’i pula, he said to come with him because he had a hanging bunch. He had a kid wait at the road to flag down the bus, if it came, and we headed to get some bananas. Meanwhile, I passed Lauesi and she told me to come back and say hi. So, I did. We chatted, her baby is so cute. And then I headed back to my house. On the way, I ran into Tasi (who lives behind Mele, who lives next to me) and asked if he could scrape some coconut for me when he got home. He asked if he could borrow my bike when I was done. I stopped and chatted with Koreti and her husband, who had returned from the plantation in their car and picked up my pineapple. Then I stopped at the small store and bought flour and sugar. They didn’t have eggs or butter, so the cake making was on hold until Junior returned from Salelologa and opened his store. About 10AM, I was hanging with Mele when we saw Junior’s truck go by, so I headed back to the store with Fiti (he is 5 and so cute) but Junior said there were no eggs for him to buy in Salelologa. I bought butter and decided to make the cakes anyway, but substitute double baking powder for the eggs. In the meantime, Mele’s oldest daughter brought me one egg from under a chicken somewhere to use. I made the first cake, no problem, but then as I put the second cake into the toaster oven, the power went out. This is a usual problem in Savaii, we loose power every other night, but usually in the evenings…hence the cooking the cakes during the day. Mele was over and she and I were making candy necklaces with yarn and saran wrap. So we finished that task and then took our naps. The power was out for about three hours and finally I was back on cake making duty. By the time the fourth and final cake came out of the oven, it was 5:30PM. The fourth cake I divided up and gave to the moms of the families that provided me with supplies, which was appreciated. And now I will go put the other three in the fridge to avoid letting the cats indulge themselves. Task accomplished. Malolo (rest).