A Taste of the Tropics

Last week, we wrapped up a unit study on Courage. We took a look at the lives of Bible heroes like David, Daniel, Joshua. That's always fun and always a good reminder of how God can use us where we are if we trust Him.

We also read a book out loud titled Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry. The main character is a boy who lives on a polynesian island (long before Hawaii was even a US territory!) and was afraid of the sea. He set out on a journey to face and overcome his greatest fears. A terrific read! And to finish off our unit with a bang, we enjoyed a tropical feast. This included fresh coconut and pineapple, plantains and mango and more.



In order to pour out the coconut milk we could hear sloshing around inside, Luke pulled out the big guns, er, uh, the cordless drill!


With three holes drilled in one end, pouring the milk was an easy task. Everyone was quite surprised to see a clear, yellowish liquid draining into the glass.








And then the taste test - yummmmm! Or maybe not. I don't think anyone was impressed with the coconut milk. Maybe it was just an old coconut.




Next, it was time to get really serious. Luke used a saw in order to get to the meat inside. It was beautiful - pure white! We all tried a bite, and agreed that it tasted better than the milk, but wasn't like the coconut we are used to.



An ice cream scoop worked great when cleaning out the shell. Hmmm, coconut ice cream - now there's an idea!


More taste-testing -- although no one wanted seconds on the coconut, the fresh fruits and fried plantain were a hit!






And now we are leaving the tropics behind, heading back to the mainland, moving on to the War for Independence, continuing to look at examples of the courage it took to establish our country, our constitution, our government.