Sago in Pictures

I really wanted to share with you all the process of harvesting sago in pictures. I went through all our pictures from that day and picked out the ones I thought were most important. Yeah it was 40 pictures. Obviously I cannot add 40 pictures on this blog, so I narrowed the process again to something a little more manageable. I know, though, that pictures will only give a tiny glimpse of what it is like, but hey it is a glimpse more than you had before, right??

Anyway, as I said in my first post about "saksak", it is really hard work. First we got in a kanu and traveled about 20 minutes to the next village over. The reason we did this is because the people in our village have to hike for HOURS to get to their saksak trees, so the missionaries had mercy on us and let us ask some of the believers from the next village over to teach us how to do this very important task since their trees were only about a 10 minute hike into the swamp. (How does the next village over have believers in it??? Because the church in our village did an outreach in that village. Pretty cool, huh?)

Ok, so get in a kanu...



Get to this big mountain and climb it (please notice the angle and that it is straight up. Thank you)...



Now hike into a thick jungley swamp (I was not trying to take a picture of 3N1's rear end, I promise. I was just trying to show you that he is walking through said swamp barefooted. Dummy. And I mean that with much love and affection)...



Find "your" saksak tree. Yes, it has to belong to you. Cutting down someone else's saksak is a no-no...




Cut it down...





Clean "as bilong em". (Funny Pidgin lesson: the base or bottom of anything is its "as" pronounced "AH-SS". This word is also used for origin or even birthplace. So you can ask someone "As ples bilong yu i stap we?" He he he!) OK, all immaturity aside. You clean all the dirt and needles off of it...



Yes, I said needles...



Then you split it open (Please notice the beefy arm. Thank you.)...



While the men were chopping up the tree, the ladies were finding all sorts of stuff in the swamp to build the contraption for "washing" the saksak...



Seriously, my friend brought 2 things with her- half of a hallowed out coconut shell and a piece of a coconut leaf that was like a mesh strainer. We built everything else from stuff we found right around us. It was amazing...



I will confess that I had no idea what I was looking for most of the time...



We had to clean the needles of these branches before we propped them on our shoulders and carried them to the spot we were building the contraption...



We put the branches in place to make a slide where the water and the starchy substance goes down...



Then we made the strainer...



Then we made the "water scooper". We put a long thin branch in the half coconut shell and tied it with vines...



Then we filled up the baskets with the pulp from the tree...



Dumped them into the top of the contraption, scooped water, and washed the saksak...



Even Lu wanted to try...



After we washed it all, we let the water (see the orange weird looking liquid, that is the water)...



And this is what is left at the bottom. This is saksak. (It reminded us of the science experiement we did in elementary school where the teacher put some corn starch in water and added a little food coloring and called it "ooblek". We played with it and discovered that is was solid it you hit it, but liquid if you tried to pick it up. Anyone remember that???)...




Next, the people dry it for several days and then use it to cook in various ways. This way is "frying" it.We scooped some into a pan over a fire with another half coconut shell. Pressed it into the pan, let it cook for a while then flipped it to cook on the other side...



Then we ate it. And even though these 2 have crazy looks on their faces, it was actually pretty good...



Well, there you go. Now you know how to get saksak if you really really needed some.

Your Welcome.