Instalment 27; Fatfat Tumas

At Thursday study group we learnt about obesity. Obesity in Bislama is ‘fatfat tumas’ (fat fat too much). Most people in Vanuatu are obese, most women anyway. Obesity is becoming one of the biggest health risks, next to malaria. This is mainly because the consistently available food here is taro, sweet potato and island yam. I would estimate 80 percent of the diet is made up of these stodgy carbs. Meat is much rarer, quite expensive and usually kept for special occasions. There are scrawny chickens and valuable plump pigs, but you don’t want to go eating your own wealth away do you? There are loads of fruits and vegetables, but the availability of these things largely depend on good weather. Different vegetables come and go in the markets, and there are times when little is available, especially if there has been cyclones and storms destroying trees. So people eat stodge, and a lot of stodge at that. Children get very unbalanced diets, as they eat the stodge combined with imported cheap junk food (chemical snacks) and raspberry cordial. It was quite difficult explaining what obesity was. This was because everybody is obese, so Agnus and Alice thought that size of people was quite normal, rather than a heath risk. What would be the point of everyone being scrawny and thin? It would be terribly unattractive for a start. No, it is much better for women to be very large and fat and beautiful. For the first time in my life I suddenly wished I was a bit plumper. Much to the teachers dismay I have actually lost 6kg since arriving. To much walking, not enough delishous fried and fatty western food.