Exercising my Lovo muscle

Lovo was good last night (not as good as at the wedding), but I'm missing the rugby game this morning cause I don't know where it is. I went down to Albert park where it's been the last 2 weeks, but no one is there. I have it straight from Christopher's mouth that it starts at 9:30, but there's no one there. The shipping containers are even gone, so I don't think there will be any big games there this week. I could go check out the national stadium, but that will be a long trip if it's not. It's probably half time already.

I was held up at the yacht club waiting for the yachtie last night. I got sick of trying to get a decent price from cabbies and walked about a mile in the rain in my slippers at a pretty good pace and was only 5 minutes late myself. I gave him my info, let him fudge my experiece a bit for insurance purposes (if anyone asks, I've been sailing since I was seven) and found out we won't be leaving till Wednesday at the soonest. I'd expected as much. Now what to do? I have to be in town on Monday for customs, so that cancels any trips again. Oh well.

On the way home (I tricked the taxi into using his meter, knowing it would be even less than my demanded price) I stopped at the store and bought toilet paper for McGoons (since I knew from sad experience they were out) and a bunch of juice (what Sam knows as juice) for the party. Four 2.5 liter bottles of Sprint: orange, raspberry, pineapple, and lemonade. Which instantly put me on everyone's good side. Most people here have a voracious sweet tooth, but they don't indulge it very much because they can't afford to.

There were so many dishes last night, I couldn't name them all, even if I knew the names of them. The floor of the house was covered with mats and banana leaves served as a table cloth (on the floor.) All the men were sitting around the kava bowl and I was invited to join in the ceremony. I sat right next to the father of the guy going to australia to play rugby (the reason for the celebration) and had a good talk with him.

There were a few speeches, by the father, brother, and I think the chief; Mcgoon blessed the food, and then we ate. Or I ate. Most of the men kept drinking grog. I don't know if they ever ate. They were going to stay up all night.

Everyone was amused that I couldn't sit crosslegged. Officially, you're supposed to, but they made allowances for the unflexible palangi.

I think I'm officially adopted into the village now. I gave the kids junkfood; I played rugby with the older boys; and now I've had grog (kava) with the the men.

I had to leave at around 9:30 to make sure I checked into the motel by 10. My friend the security guard was back, so we chatted for a while.