House Guest

I have a house guest. She is the mother of a dear friend, and she is here from Western Samoan, visiting her daughter and granddaughter for a month. Her name is Sue, and she is helping me learn primitive Polynesian technology.

How to make a broom: Cut a coconut frond or two, and remove the individual long, skinny leaves from each frond. Pick a leaf, and, with a knife, near one end of the leaf, slice into the green part down to the rib. Then, simply run the knife along the rib for the length of the leaf. The green part of the leaf easily peels away. Flip the leaf around and repeat the procedure for the other side of the rib. Now, at the base of the leaf, the part where the leaf was once attached to the frond, strip the remaining green part away from the base of the rib, and slightly fray it. The whole process takes less than thirty seconds. Repeat this process for maybe three dozen leaves. What you have now is a pile of coconut leaf ribs, which are the straws of your broom. Sue did this day before yesterday.

 7 a.m. yesterday: she is sitting on my living room floor, cross legged. She would pick up three bundles, each of three or four ribs at a time, and braid the frayed ends of the three bundles together, leaving the other end of the rib loose.. She kept adding bundles of ribs from the pile, and in a very short time, had braided all the frayed ends of the ribs together. When she held that up, it looked much like a grass skirt-wrap. She then laid her creation on the floor, and commenced to rolling it up along the braided part. When she was done, she taped it secure, and she had her broom. It's about 2 1/2 feet long. Then, she got up and swept the floor with it. And then she mopped the floor (with my store-bought mop).

Yeah, this is my house. In American Samoa. How cool is that for a wannabe anthropologist? Pictures to follow. Oh, yeah. Put a handle on the broom and you have the preferred island tool for sweeping your yard.