The Winds of Zenadth

 

Tuesday 9 September - Friday 12th was the Torres Straight cultural festival, named the Winds of Zenadth. Don't ask me what Zenadth is... a google search has not helped me :/ The Winds of Zenadth only occurs every two years, alternating with the music festival on TI, so I was pretty lucky to be here just at the right time. I worked the opening night, but managed to just have enough time to walk down and get some dinner - I had to wait in line for about 20mins! I had my dinner break at 6ish, and even though it was suppose to start at 4pm, not much was happening! That night I had a bean curry, which was kind of like chili con carne, and very tasty :)

 

After work I came home and some of the other girls from Groupshare had brought me some turtle and vegetables to try. Yes that says turtle and I had a little bit. The turtle and veg were cooked underground, and had this horrible smoky taste that I didn't like one bit. So I didn't eat much. The vegetables were cooked in the same manner and had the same smokiness as an after taste. Even though they were in a coconut milk sauce, which was nice, the smokiness came out and I couldn't eat that either!
 

Turtle. The dark greenish stuff on the bottom left piece is fat :/
 

I had Wednesday and Thursday off work, but didn't get to see much of the singing and dancing until Thursday because on Wednesday I had dinner with some of the other nurses. We all brought a plate of food and had a great feast :) The next night I was invited to another dinner, but declined as Thursday would be my last chance to experience the cultural fest, as I was working Friday afternoon/evening. That night I went and watched some of the dancing and singing, and bought myself some local art :)



 

 

Cutest turtle - would have loved to have bought him, but he's
too big :( Check out the artists website for how he makes them:
www.ninosabatino.com.au

The mini ones didn't look quite as cute

 

Dancing and singing :)

 

My dinner - Seemur Chicken. ALL the stalls were selling it,
so I decided it must be the thing to eat. Was quite nice -
chicken in a soy sauce with vermicelli noodles and rice

The first time I've had ice-cream in about 6 weeks!

 

 



Some more singing and dancing :)

 

Bought the bowl to put my shells in that I got from
Goods Island - plan to collect some more

Dugongs - from the same guy who made
the turtles

Turtles :)
 

Friday morning before work I rode up with a friend to watch the parade. Locals from each of the different islands had decorated their cars with weaved palm leaves and flowers, and were singing as they walked along. For lunch I had a meat pie and lamington (very cultural - haha!). And then it was off to work for public holiday rates ;)

 

The parade... I may have dropped my pie :P