A new experience in eating coconut

The sisters in Balamban wanted us to taste coconut milk and fresh coconut right out of the coconut. "Sure" - we said, "We are up for that."  Here's our experience:

Sister Hutchings placed the green coconut on the ground.

This is not the "hairy" brown coconut we are familiar with in the States.

Elder Sommerfeldt starting trying to cut off the end of the coconut. 

The tough shell was very hard to cut.

Then he needed to dig a hole out of the center.

Elder Sommerfeldt made a fist around the top of the knife, 

and Sister Sawyer hit his hand with her hand to help make the knife go into the hard coconut.

When the hole was finally through the outer shell, 

Elder Sommerfeldt took the first drink of coconut milk.

The color of the milk was an opaque white.

Sister Sommerfeldt also took a drink directly from the coconut. 

It wasn't as easy as it sounds. 

Sister Pedroso finally came to the rescue with a cup in which to pour the milk.

The taste was really quite good. 

The next step was to crack the coconut open - into two halves.

What we really needed was a machete! 

Sister Pedroso used the second coconut as a hammer against the knife

to help with the cutting motion.

Finally, the coconut was in two halves. 

The white meat of the coconut was soft and easy to dig out with a spoon.

It also tasted quite good. 

Quite different, though, from the dried, flaked coconut we are used to eating.

We thank these sisters for the fun, new experience!