thanksgiving and coprah coprah coprah

27 November 2015

Happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends in the states and elsewhere. It’s definitely strange to be woken up by roosters and dogs on Thanksgiving and walk around sweating when I’m used to hiding from the bitter cold but either way, I found a little way to celebrate. A few weeks ago I had told my brother and his wife about thanksgiving, why we celebrate and how we celebrate, and he loved it and insisted we get something similar together. I told him it would be easy, all we needed to do was have a family dinner with lots of different foods.

 I had a yam still lingering from yam season so I decided to boil it and mash it with some green onions, garlic and tomatoes for a twist on mashed potatoes. After the sun went down I made my way over to my family’s kitchen to set up for our meal. A big thank you to Mrs. Jones for sending decorative fall colored leaves and assorted gourds as well as a pumpkin spice candle. I set up my little display in the middle of the room and we all sat around it to eat. My tawi made simboro and boiled fish so with the mashed yams we were all set for Jovi Family Thanksgiving 2014. Before we ate I told everyone that we had to go around the room and say what we’re thankful for because that’s what I thought people did (although Pete says I’m crazy). Everyone participated, my dadi prayed for the food and we ate. It was fun to share thanksgiving traditions with my family because they really aren’t very different than the everyday life of my family. Every night they all come together, pray and give thanks to papa God for all he did for them during the day and eat!

jayla just likes to come and be all cute

I realize that I forgot to tell you about my favorite new village activity—shelling out coprah. One morning last week I walked over to my Abu’s (grandpa/grandma) house because we had made (loose) plans to go fishing together. My Abu is a great fisherman. He goes out in his canoe by himself almost every day and comes back with enough fish for the family and more to share. As I rolled up to his house I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to hang with my fishing line wrapped around an old beer bottle and my lack of hooks due to them being misplaced somewhere in my house. However, my fears we’re relieve when I arrived and my anti told me that he was already gone! Not to worry I said, I’d just hang out with them for awhile. Anti said they were all going to the bush to shell out coprah for Pastor Roy. Cool, I thought, coprah is life in Northwest Malekula—every family works coprah in order to pay school fees, buy food and use for other standard living requirements.

Coprah is essentially dried coconut meat. To make coprah you need a coconut plantation or a friend with one, a bush knife, a tool called a screw, some big empty bags, friends and some food for fuel. First, the person who owns the plantation goes around the area splitting whole coconuts in two pieces through the middle and making neat piles all throughout the plantation. The next day, various people from the family/community can buy in shares of the coprah for 500 vatu (about $5) and agree to work on shelling it out for the day. So, a group of people (I’ve seen anywhere from 5-12) trek into the bush in the morning—men, women, children and olfala alike—to work the plantation for the day. People broke off into groups of 3 or 4 and settled down by a big pile of halved coconuts.

squad numbawan--tawi, abu (grandma) and me

In order to remove the meat from the shell you have to use the screw tool. It’s difficult to get the hang of at first but eventually you get into a groove where you’re basically cutting under where the coconut meat starts and separating it from its hard shell. Once the coconut meat has been removed you throw it into a large back to be transported over to the coprah bed. The coconut is spread on top of the coprah bed and dried by a fire lit underneath where the coprah lays. After a few days of drying the coprah is packed tightly into pre sized bags for export and sold throughout the island. The coprah bought on Malekula is then shipped to Santo  where it is then bought again by an international company with a big ship. The coprah is usually shipped to the Philippines (or that’s what I’ve been told) where it’s used to make just about anything you can imagine with coconut flavoring and scent.

me with anti ella learning how to cut the meat out

As I said before, coprah is a major part of the economy in my village and many of the surrounding villages. Some families work multiple plantations a week just working to pay school fees term by term. Coprah is a great thing because it’s always available and the big companies are mostly always buying—unfortunately the price also changes frequently. I’m glad I stumbled into the coprah crew that day so that I could learn how it all works. While I already knew how hard people work here it was nice to actually have the hands on experience of living the coprah life. I also just loved the whole day because we went as a big group, broke off into smaller groups for a few hours, came together for lunch (made by whoever owns the plantation), took a good spel for about two hours, got back up and broke off into different small groups and as the sun was getting lower we headed back to the house. A day spent working, stori-ing and sleeping in the middle of a coconut plantation with good people is a really good day.