All along the walk, there were many varieties of bananas (23 varieties) and coconut palms (which is the second cash crop besides rice). Some of the homes are lovely, but then, many are in terrible condition. We just cannot imagine living with water surrounding the house up to the door steps, often with lots of garbage floating about. The islands are susiding, and some of these homes will be eventually be underwater. Our landlady said that in her youth, when the house was built, there were 10 steps up to the house from the water’s edge. Now, the water is up to the fourth. They will have to shore up the dikes soon.

As the evening cooled off, we saw two men up in the coconut trees. They were tapping the blossom ends and sap for coconut liquor or palm wine (toddy). It’s collected in jugs and taken to a special pub and sometimes offered for private sale. The alcohol content starts off at 2% but increases to 8% almost overnight. The jugs can’t be capped as they will blow the top off. Sanjay had some for tasting with our supper. Some were quite put-off with the smell and needed three or more fingerling bananas to get rid of the taste. LOL!

All along the walk, Mr. Thomas gave the history of the area. We met up with a couple of young girls on a bridge from another village. That village was not as fortunate to have had the dike built by the government. Much of the field area was under water.