Happy (belated) Lao National Day to everyone!
December 2nd is Lao National Day, so no one had work. We were minding our own business, relaxing at home on the holiday, (and preparing for a fabric-shopping extravaganza) when someone rang the doorbell. A man and his daughter were going door-to-door with their cart of coconuts to all of the houses with coconut trees, asking if they could climb our trees to collect the fruit. Since our tree is about three stories tall and we had no plans for our coconuts, we said okay.
coconut harvest in our front yard
With a machete tucked into his shorts, the man started to climb rapidly up the skinny, three-story trunk, monkey-style. Once he had gotten to the top, he used the machete to hack bunches of coconuts off and then lower them down to the ground on a rope. About 20 minutes later, the work was all done and the coconuts ready to be carted away. For payment we requested to keep one each, and for him to cut them open, so we could stick straws in and drink the milk from our own home-grown coconuts.