Yes, we have bananas!




As you might expect, we have a lot of bananas in the Solomon Islands. What you might find surprising is that there are many many varieties available. Some bananas have to be cooked, others can be eaten right off the hand and some can be either cooked or eaten fresh. Some bananas are tiny – 3-4″ long and others nearly a foot in length.

Yesterday as I walked through the market, I saw a type of banana I hadn’t seen before so I decided to try them. As you can see they are a bit red on the outside, but the flesh has a red tint as well. They are very tasty bananas.

When we are in the USA we don’t eat many bananas because they tend to be rather tasteless and disappointing to us. The variety of bananas sold in the USA were probably chosen because they ship well. Bananas here are tree ripened and we’d have to say they taste much better as a result!

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Treasure at the Beach


Last Saturday when we went to the beach, Emily and her friend Grant found coconut which had begun to sprout. Emily and Grant got excited because it holds a special treat.

They took a bush knife (machete) to the coconut to get through the thick
fibrous husk. They hacked at that until they could peel the husk off the shell.


A final ‘whack’ and the shell splits open. Inside the shell is a pithy white flesh which is the ‘germ’ of the coconut seed. The kids love to eat this slightly sweet treat which is called vara.

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