Day 2

After church on Sunday we went to a waterfall and watched a lady husk a coconut. The drive up to the water fall was so amazing. Everything is so green and beautiful. 

After seeing the waterfall a local lady taught us about coconuts. She showed us how to husk a coconut, crack it open, grate out the meat, and make coconut milk. We were all then given the opportunity to try, it was a lot harder than it looked! She was so fast at everything and made it look like no big deal! 

Husking the coconut

cracking open the coconut

Coconuts have two eyes and a mouth. You have to have it turned the right way to easily crack it open and have to be quick to not let all the water spill out. 

Grating out the coconut meat

As the coconut fell into the bowl below the chickens and cats would sneak up and try to eat it. So you had to focus on grating the coconut, not cutting your hands, and shooing away the animals all at once.

The fresh coconut was so good! 

The coconut meat is strained through bark to get the coconut milk. Its is so thick, creamy, and sweat

 After we all had a turn with the coconuts we went over to her sugar-cane field. She pulled out her machete and cut down sugar cane and peeled it for us. We all bit off hunks of sugar cane, would chew it to get the sugar and then spit out the wood part.

Eating sugar cane

I loved being able to experience this part of the Samoan culture. I had never realized that coconuts were so much work and definitely gained an appreciation for the people here.