Higueros

I´m a big dummy and forgot the video of the harvesting of the higuero, I´ll post it next time. And will hopefully have lots more posts too. I´m way behind right now. Lots of love to all.

I had heard from the previous volunteer that she had made lamps out of higueros which are some sort of gourd looking thing. I was curious. So I was out walking one day and ran into my friend Francisco. Now we were chatting and I was looking at this tree behind him and there were these huge fruits hanging from the tree. I asked him what they were and lo and behold they were higueros. Needless to say I was excited. So Francisco and I climbed the fence into the yard of Rosini, the owner of the house. My friend Santa was there too with her kids and Rosini's kids were there too. I asked Francisco to get me a gourd which he tried to do but they were quite high so it broke when it came down. Which was actually cool because I wanted to see what one looked like inside anyway. I think it personally smells like an apple although the textures is more like a sponge. However, one of my other volunteer friends thought it smelled like some sort of cleanser but I think he's wrong. Well, then I saw another higuero tree that had these immense higueros so we went to check it out. Francisco called over one of the muchachos to climb the tree and toss down the higuero. Now this thing was huge and heavy and though the muchacho did his best the higuero came hurtling towards the ground and almost hit Francisco on the head. I was sure it was going to break, but it didn't and luckily I got most of it on video for you all to enjoy. Then the muchachos had to pose for pictures with the higueros which was equally entertaining. Well, I was trying to figure out how to get these huge higueros home by myself when Francisco offered to help me. So we wandered taking the long way home, stopping to throw rocks into the mango tree to knock down the ripe ones, which we washed in the river and ate as many as we could. We bagged up the rest in a bag we found tied to a stick in the fence to take home to my doñas.


higueros in the trees


The muchachos holding the higueros


This is what a higuero looks like inside


Rosini the owner of the house and the trees too I suppose


Here´s how the higueros measured up to my size 9 1/2 Keen sandals!

Now I had these higueros sitting in my room for a couple of days before I could find a saw. I finally borrowed a saw and was cutting one open in the yard as I talked to Santa the neighbor and her kids when my friend Tony wandered up and decided to show me how an expert does it. He was the one who helped Adriana do the higuero lamps with the group of girls she worked with. I wasn't doing too bad a job, but he sure made it look a hell of a lot easier. I think I did the hard part though. So now I have one higuero cut open and drying in my room and another one that I haven't cut because they needed the saw back to cut tubo (pipe) for the llaves (faucets) that they're putting in now that the acueduct is finished (another story I'll get to eventually). Apparently I need power tools to drill a pretty design into the higuero to make a lamp on top of trying to figure out where and how much it will cost to buy a lamp fixture. But I'm going to get it done because I want to use them in my house.


Here´s my friend Tony cutting out the insides and the neighbor boy Muñongo (that´s his nickname and I don´t know what it means) clowning around.


Here´s Tony again working intently.


Man this kid is photogenic, but he´s kind of a brat too and you should hear the bad words that come out of his mouth.


The neighbor Santa helping me scrape out all the little tidbits from the higuero. That´s her daughter Mari Estel walking beside her.


If I were to marry a Dominican and have children, they might very well look like this!