Vistitors are the BEST! (Part 4)

Coconuts have so many uses! I have the desire (but no follow-through yet) to take pictures and write up a post on all the types of coconuts at their different stages and all the things they are used for. But for now, I'll content myself with posting pictures of scraping out coconut from inside old, sprouted coconuts, which is then roasted. This is called copra. When people need money (which they do occasionally), this is the main moneymaker out in the villages. Most everyone has their own copra bed to roast it on.  Virtually every family group has their own copra bed like this one just beyond our backyard.  Unfortunately, they (the roasting copra) seem to often catch fire, as this one did a few weeks before we left Ambrym so when people run around shouting in the middle of the night, we usually can guess the cause.

And there are a few nicer copra roasting houses just outside the village that are regularly used as well.  Copra goes on top of the bed, and logs go in the metal cylinder and burn to roast the copra.  When it's roasted a day or so, they pack it up in burlap sacks and put it on a ship to be sold on another island where some of it is processed into oil and other products, or sold to China and other countries. They doesn't quite fit OSHA standards, but it works for here.  :)  Play the smilebox below for pictures of the process.

Slideshow generated with Smilebox