Once day my friend Mana Jeni and I went for a ride out to see her family's natar (rice field). We had a nice morning, just hanging out, meeting a few random people and some of here family who were working cutting the rice ready to harvest.
It was getting pretty hot by the time we returned to Maliana, about 11am, and she invited me into sit in the shade on the small grassy patch in their yard. We were sitting there chatting when her father, who is probably about 60 (which is really old for East Timorese), decided that I needed a coconut. So, he sent his brother up the tree to pick it for me.
As I sat with Jeni I watched this old man scale a coconut tree in a matter of seconds, pick two coconuts and throw them to the ground for her and I to have. Next thing, he was back on the ground and had decided one of them was not good...so back up he went to find another one.
Jeni's dad who was ready with his machete, hacked it open for us and sat back to watch us enjoy it.
It was such a lovely moment. Sitting on a rare patch of soft grass in the shade, with my friend drinking from a freshly picked young coconut under the watchful eye of her father.
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