The teachers all put on a tea to come together as a group. There are 24 teachers and over half of the teachers are of Indian descent. All of the teachers brought an dish to share. My food experiences had been limited to mostly traditional Fijian foods. At the tea, there was a mixture of Indian foods all were new to me. As I selected the foods, I followed my missionary rules:

# 3 Try everything once ~ you’ll be surprised &

# 4 When it comes to trying new foods, start with a spoonful. You can always swallow a spoonful, but not necessarily a plateful

I was full of questions about what each food item was and how they were made. All of them were quick to share with me how to cook the foods that were prepared. Yes, I will try to duplicate some of them at home. I was given some of the spices and the tea so I can have my own tea party. Honestly, I can say that ALL of the food was tasteful and nice ~ some unusually hot as they were loaded with chili’s ~ but all good:)

When tea was finished, the women stayed back to clean up. Most of the Indian women wore beautiful sarees (wrap dresses) and they were talking about the latest fashion for creating pleats. I was watching and listening attentively as one teacher explained to the others how to wrap themselves and create a beautiful flowing pleats. When they started to wrap each other, I was right there. I mentioned that I was given a beautiful sari the day before as a gift. Had I known, I would have brought it so that they could wrap me up too. “Next time,” they said, “bring your sari to tea & we will wrap you too.”

**Side note, Yes, I did try to wrap myself later quite funny. I discovered with all of those yards of fabric, one really needs assistance when putting on a sari, especially for the first time!!!