Thursday, October 12

I have come to SISP to observe the Thursday DGD session in action. The rain stops and I hear crashing sounds. I look outside to see a coconut man high up one of the trees, hacking down big bunches of coconuts and then trimming the leaves.

The man has climbed about ten metres up the tree with no equipment at all except the machete that he carries in one hand. Traditionally this job gets passed from father to son but today apparently many fathers find it difficult to interest their sons in taking it up.

Watching him climb up, lean out to hack at coconuts and leaves, and then slither down again I recognise that we can read the phrase dying profession in several different ways, all of them true.