Making Money with Copra

When you think of islands in the south pacific what comes to mind?  Long sandy beaches?  Lush green jungle?  Tall coconut trees?  The coconut trees here are amazing.  Their trunks can be used for wood.  The leaves for baskets, brooms, fire starters and mats.  The coconuts are essential for drinking and food.

One of the most common ways for the locals to make money is by selling copra.  Coconuts grow wherever one is germinated but the locals are proactive about planting them into plantations.  When the plantations have lots of dry coconuts that have fallen down it is a perfect time to make copra.  Copra is the dried "meat" of the coconut.  

First the dry brown coconuts are heaped into piles.  This in itself is a days work.  Then Mama (she's the pro) will come through and chop the coconuts in half with one strong whack with an axe.  I tried a few heaps.  Each coconut took 3 or 4 whacks to break apart and I wasn't always right down the middle...oops.  I also was so busy focusing on the coconuts that I accidentally stepped in cow poo...oops again.

Papa comes behind to lay out both sides of the coconut and take out any navara that has grown inside.  Navara is when the coconut water starts to consolidate to make a cotton candy type consistency.  The coconuts then dry in the sun for a day or two.

The next step involves a lot of team work.  They do this together because they can talk and work at the same time and share the load.  Using a special tool they scrape the meat out of the coconut husk.

The chunks of coconut "meat" are then dried using smoke from fire for a day or two.  We are sorting the pieces to see which are finished and which need to be smoked more.

Papa is building the fire underneath the copra bed.  

The dried copra is then sold to a local store.  The locals make about 25,000 vatu (about 250 USD) per ton.  The local store sends the bags to Santo island for processing.  Coconut oil is extracted from it and the rest is used to make copra meal.  This copra meal is full of protein but has too much fiber in it to be consumed by humans.  The copra meal is perfect though for horses and cattle.

This is not an easy way to make money since it involves many steps and physical labor but if you put in the work you can get the reward.  The locals work together to help each other and it can be a fun social event too.  

Our Family Program

As you may or may not remember my host family is HUGE!  I have 4 sisters and 10 more cousins that live in our same yard.  We started an after school program 4 nights a week to have an hour of practicing English.  The kids enjoy showing off their hard work and I enjoy spending time with them every day.  Here we are hard at work!

We squeeze together on the picnic table built by Bubu Fred.  John Mark is the youngest at 2 years old going up to Michael at 13 years old.  

Christiano and John Mark being hams for the camera!  Apparently clothes are not required!

Noella and Joyline practicing handwriting

I work closely with Selena and Jerolyne because they are more behind in their reading.  This is a good time to tutor them while the others are busy!

My New House

My old house was awesome!  Hexagon shape...natangura roof...door facing the path towards the village center...good size for one person.  BUT the roof leaked.  A leaky roof means mould, mildew, and Chinese torture drip drip drip into bowls and buckets around the house.  My counterpart felt sorry for me and built me a new house!  Drum roll please....

 This house is an L shape.  There are 3 rooms (kitchen, sitting room, and bedroom).  They plan to build a veranda (porch) in the coming months.  The walls are made of meshanite and covered with a concret wash on the outside.  The roof is made from natangura leaves and keeps a cool breeze passing through at all times.

Here's the kitchen!

I have my 2 burner propane stove, a place to wash dishes, a big drum for holding water, a food safe, and shelves hidden by turtle calico!

 My sitting room has a table for eating and working as well as my comfy reading chair.  Does this make me sound old?  My Papa built me some bookshelves since I spend lots of free time reading.  In the corner of the room I have hung all of the beautiful cards sent from friends and family since I have arrived.  I get lots of snail mail!!  Thanks everyone :)

My bedroom is a bit dark but perfect for sleeping in past 5 AM.  I have my mosquito net covered bed which does wonders to block giant spiders, cockroaches, hornets, ants, millepedes and any other crawling or flying thing!  I have a clothing wardrobe and table for storage.  

 

Hung over my door I have a traditional red mat made on the east side of Ambae.  This was given to me as a gift after I was a bridesmaid for my sister Losa.  Her name was carved into the banana tree with the pattern for this special occasion!

Pandanas Mat Making

 

Every saturday afternoon the Mamas come together for a "road market."  Each one makes food to sell for cheap prices and we all sit together to chat and snack.  This particular saturday the Mamas were taking turns weaving a floor mat.  The leaves of pandanas trees are dried in the sun and used to make mats, baskets, bracelets, purses, and fans.   

 The pandanas leaves need to be smoothed out and split down the middle first.  Next they are joined together in a V shape to make it quicker to keep joining length to the mat.

 

While some weave...others rest!

  I watched them work then asked them to show me.  These mats are simple to make and so important to daily life here.  They sleep, eat, and play on them and they are often used for gifts.

Mom and Dad Visit!

In September last year I got to share my Peace Corps experience with my parents in person!  This is an experience that cannot really be expressed with words.  I can write about Vanuatu, show pictures, tell stories, etc but the only way to truly see what life is like here it to come.  After not seeing them for a full year I was waiting anxiously for them to arrive at Walaha airport.

 

My host family was just as excited to meet Mom and Dad as they were to meet my host family.  Raul and Jerexylne, two of my cousins, welcomed Mom and Dad into our homes with traditional salu salus made from fresh flowers.

We spent time taking in the beautiful island paradise sights...

Relaxing by the ocean at Devil's Rock beach...

Eating freshly caught fish...

and experiencing island living with island baskets, hand woven fans, and bucket showers...

The community was thrilled to finally meet my parents that they had heard so much about and seen in photos. A big official welcoming was held in the church.  The members of the community, including me, sang songs to welcome them.  Mom and Dad even got a chance to give a speech!

After the welcome church service the community had prepared a big spread of food for everyone to share.  This was Mom and Dad's first experience with laplap.  

The kids were also happy to meet them and enjoyed chatting about movies!

Volovuhu School did a big welcome as well.  They wanted to officially thank Mom and Dad for their contributions to the school library.  A couple of the 8th grade boys ushered the two of them into the school boundaries then the whole school sang their welcome song.

Mom and Dad got a chance to visit each classroom.  They sang songs, read books, and answered student and teacher questions about the U.S. 

The teachers prepared a colorful lunch for us to share together and gifted Mom and Dad with a traditonal laplap (called kworo in local language) as a sign of their appreciation as well as some island baskets.

One of my favorite parts of the whole week was seeing Mom and Dad spend quality time with my giant host family.  I spend so much time with my host family in Tavala and they really support me so kindly.  They have quickly become a true second family to me and I was proud to introduce them to Mom and Dad and vice versa.  Now our families have truly merged into one.

Here they are making "storian" under a mango tree just like the locals.  I think Chris is trying to get them to purchase land in Vanuatu!

They had their first and probably last experience tasting kava freshly ground for us by Papa Tensley!

There were plenty of random visits from the kids to see the token white people!

 Even baby Jenny warmed up to them eventually!

Their time in Vanuatu was short but wonderful.  Saying goodbye was emotion filled.  More island baskets and custom red mats were given to Mom and Dad as a thank you for their visit and for allowing me to come live in Vanuatu.  Bubu Fred was grinning ear to ear while handing over his gifts.  Mom and wanted to give each family within my giant host family a small gift as well for their hospitality.  They purchased some more durable mats from our local store to present to each family.

 Before our flight out we had one big family photo taken!  This one will be frame worthy for the rest of my life.