With June and Andre. Everybody here is so shy it takes a while before they even talk. Let alone having a picture taken! Local customs don't really make it any easier with strict rules on behavior and especially the interaction between woman and man.
After another great fish, rice and coconut dinner (each plate served in a separate dish wash bowl to make sure we eat enough. The guests eat first with one host and grandmother if she likes, then the man, than the woman and finally the kids. Here we stayed overnight in the hammocks.
The cats are called ' poes', just like in Dutch.
Making the outrigger canoe is a communal task. A continuous supply of toddy, an alcoholic drink collected daily in bottles hanging in every other palm tree to collect the sap from cut palm fronts (leaves), is made available to the boat builders for the labors.The drink only turns alcoholic by way of fermentation if you leave a little sap in the bottle the day before. Without this the sap makes for a nice cup of sweet tea. A substitute for water which is in short supply everywhere.
The new canoe on its maiden voyage. A packed lunch is hanging of the outrig.
Another great sunset with flat sea.
The local fishcatch is admired, commented on and then distributed to the various village communities by the lady in the picture. She keeps a tight ship and detailed administration to ensure fairness.The villages are organised by Maneaba. Or central hall. An roofed and elevated central plaza where each community meets. Each community is organised around extended family, church denomination for other purposes such as school, government e.d.
A night out..
Another fish and rice meal. There are many types of fish and many ways to to cook fish... but fish remains fish and the lack of vegetables is beginning to tell. Halleluja for the coconut. It provides cooking oil, strained sap from coconutflesh for raw fish, rasped coconut flesh, refreshing coconut sap for drinking from the still green coconut and rasped soft coconut flesh from the same green coconut. Of course the drieed out coconut shell provides fibre for compost or starts a fire for cooking any of the above...
